“It’s not going to be played over the network. There’s actually a logical reason for why they decided to do that. I think for… Up until now, basically, when people have said, “What does a network mean for video gaming?”, the answer has always been “online play.” We look at online play and we think that it’s important, and obviously for games where it makes sense, we’re going to leverage it.”

“But for Wii U launch specifically, one of the things that we want people to understand is that a network connection to a game can mean a lot of different things. It can mean online gaming, but it can also mean other unique ways to connect to other people. Miiverse is an important part of that. So for our first-party teams, particularly at launch, what they want to do is try to lead the way and show people different ways that you can use Miiverse in a meaningful way to connect the content to the Internet. They’ve put more of their focus on that Miiverse connection to Nintendo Network, rather than on online play.”

However Trinen did say he anticipates a lot more online play to come, at least from first party developers:

“But I certainly anticipate that, as we’re going deeper into the life of the Wii U and we’re seeing more and more games from the first-party teams, we’re going to start to see games that do have online play and things like that.”

What do you all think? Are you disappointed that you won’t be able to play with your friends online in Nintendo Land? Let us know!